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Parliamentary Briefing on Psychoactive Substances Bill

This is a joint briefing paper from Release and Transform Drug Policy Foundation in respect of the Government’s proposed legislation, the Psychoactive Substances Bill.

We recommend that the legislative process is postponed:

To allow for formal public consultation as outlined in the Cabinet Office’s Consultation Principles.

So that the ACMD can be fully consulted on all aspects of the proposed legislation before either House considers this legislation.

In order to consider more effective alternatives.

In fact we are of the view that the issue of NPS should not be seen in isolation and that this provides an opportunity to consider the evidence for alternative approaches to all substances currently controlled by the MDA and those emerging NPS not currently